Pieter [Petrus] Maessens [Maessins, Massenus Moderatus]

(c.1505 - 1563)

Franco-Flemish composer. A choirboy in the chapel of Margaret of Austria; a mercenary soldier in the imperial and Spanish armies until becoming a priest in 1539; chapelmaster at Notre Dame in Courtrai from 1540 until 1543-1 and subsequently assistant Kapellmeister,then Kapellmeisterof the Viennese court chapel. The majority of his compositions are sacred or secular Latin motets.